C3 Leafspring painting?

[Brandon Metzger]

I was looking up some archive post on this subject. I have a '72. Is the whole leafspring painted or just the tension side? Secondly, can someone give me the paint code or name of the gray that was used. I know you can buy it from Quanta but I was just currious. I am starting on my spring and I don't want to paint the whole thing if only half is suppose to be.

Regards,
Brandon

[Dick W.]

Re: C3 Leafspring painting?

Brandon, you are correct about just painting the tension side. The edges also had lonokad, the original coating, on them. The liners were not painted. Gray primer is very close to the original color. Once under the car it is had to tell what is on the springs

[Brandon Metzger]

Re: C3 Leafspring painting?

Dick,
Thank you for your reply. I was looking at mine today. Were '72 painted all all sides. It looked liked, to me, that both sides were painted. My car was from TX so rust has not been a big issue and under some of the linings it looks like gray was on both sides.

Brandon

[Gary B.]

Leaf spring painting

Brandon,

I want add my two cents on the painting question. Until 3 or 4 years ago, the notion that the C2 and C3 rear leaf springs were painted only on the tension side was believed by some, but not by everyone and I believe not even by a majority. In the past couple of years the idea has gained more and more acceptance, but I think largely because the statement has been repeated on this board and I'm not convinced that these new assertations are based on new evidence.

I can say that the GM engineering drawings for C2/C3 rear springs call out for the paint to be applied to the tension side only. However, as Dick W. points out and as I have seen on at least two 7-leaf NOS examples, the paint also typcially covers the two thin edges, so what the engineering drawing calls out doesn't match 100% with observation. I've dismantled several original mid-year springs and I have seen evidence of paint on the compression side as well. This paint has been protected and preserved by the presence of the plastic liners and not transferred from the tension side of one leaf to the compression side of the adjacent leaf. Based on what the original spring of my '66 looked like when I took it apart, I opted to painted all sides of all leaves when I restored it thinking that this is how it came on my car and my goal was and is to duplicate what I find during dismantling.

Gary